喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to picture it: you stand in front of something far bigger than you — a mountain, a night sky, a person of great skill — and for a moment you go quiet. You are not exactly afraid, but you feel small.

你站在一個遠比自己巨大的東西前面——一座山、整片星空、一個技藝高到不可思議的人——然後你安靜下來了。那一瞬間你並不是…更多收起你站在一個遠比自己巨大的東西前面——一座山、整片星空、一個技藝高到不可思議的人——然後你安靜下來了。那一瞬間你並不是害怕，但你確實感覺到自己很小。awe 就是「震撼」和「敬意」黏在一起的那種感覺：說不出話，眼睛移不開，心裡同時覺得美和有點壓迫。這個字的老祖宗其實是古北歐語的「恐懼」，現代英語裡恐懼那一面已經淡到只剩底色，但那點「不敢隨便」的緊張感還留著——這正是它跟單純的 admire（欣賞）不一樣的地方。

From the word’s history

From Old Norse agi “terror, dread”, via Middle English aw/awe. The dread has softened over centuries into wonder, but a trace of it survives in the word's seriousness.

這個字借自古北歐語 agi，本義是「恐怖、畏懼」，中古英語作 aw、awe，還把原本的英語詞 eye/eyȝe 擠掉了。從「恐懼」一路淡化成「讚嘆」，這條路解釋了現代 awe 為什麼總是重的、正式的：你不會對一杯好喝的咖啡說 awe。同一條線也留在 awful（原本是「令人敬畏的」，後來變成「糟透了」）和 awesome 身上。

Wiktionary: awe — from Middle English aw/awe, borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz “terror, dread”, from PIE *h₂egʰ-.

Three branches

面對龐大：心裡的那股震撼

這一族是那股感覺本身，對象通常是景象或事物。

wonder, admiration · noun · C2

A feeling of great respect and liking, often when you see someone or something very large, beautiful, or powerful.

敬畏

面對人：不敢隨便的那份敬重

同一股震撼，但對象換成一個人，於是那點「不敢造次」的成分浮了出來。

respect mixed with fear · noun · C2

Great respect for a person, sometimes mixed with a little fear, especially in the phrases in awe of and hold in awe.

敬畏（對人）

把這股震撼加到別人身上

從「我感覺到」翻成「某個東西讓我感覺到」——同一幅畫面，只是換人當主詞。

to awe someone · verb · C2

To make someone feel great respect and liking, and often a little fear. Almost always used as be awed by.

使敬畏

原始詞典資料9 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

AWEname

  • 1

    rail-transportrailwaystransportThe station code of AsiaWorld–Expo in Hong Kong.

Awename

  • 1

    A surname.

  • 2

    A short river between Loch Awe and Loch Etive, Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland; in full, the River Awe.

    • For nearly four miles, between Loch Awe and Taynuilt, the Callander and Oban section of the L.M.S.R. runs through the Pass of Brander, on the lower slopes of Ben Cruachan, beside the swift-flowing River Awe.

awenoun詞源 1/ɔː/

  • 1

    A feeling of fear and reverence.

    • Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
  • 2

    A feeling of amazement.

    • For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
    • In 1825, the first public railway carried passengers across the English countryside, setting in motion not just an engineering revolution, but an industrial one too. Imagine the awe and excitement of those first passengers as they boarded the train, unaware that they were witnessing the dawn of a new era.
  • 3

    archaicPower to inspire awe.

aweverb詞源 1/ɔː/

  • 1

    To inspire fear and reverence in.

    • That large room had always awed Ivor: even as a child he had never wanted to play in it, for all that it was so limitless, the parquet floor so vast and shiny and unencumbered, the windows so wide and light with the fairy expanse of Kensington Gardens.
  • 2

    To control by inspiring dread.

    • While a sense of outrage is the only rational response to atrocity, if that outrage is maintained at too high a level over too long a time it can generate feelings of impotence, as we permit ourselves to be awed by this irrational act of violence.

awenoun詞源 2/ɔː/

  • 1

    obsoleteA bucket (blade) attached to water wheels.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。